Friendship & Trust Is A Rarity
by xXBalorBabeXx
Summary: Especially in their lives. With the biggest event in WWE history looming closer, things start to change but who will the changes benefit?
1. Chapter 1: The Life We Know

Days like these frustrated her… and Amanda didn't want to admit it.

Across the Performance Centre, another argument had broken out between three of the former members of the Shield… and their Shield sister had had enough.

Amanda Rose Cena had had so many nicknames over the years. Shield sister was a recent one but hadn't been used much since mid 2014… and shortly after that was when she met Finn Balor and the fans nicknamed the pair the Demon King & Demon Mistress.

Here it was, late March 2016… Seth was getting near ready to return to action as his knee had been healing faster than he thought and Wrestlemania 32 was edging closer too.

"Mandy?"

Amanda blinked as Finn's Irish accent jarred her out of her thoughts along with his left hand resting on her left side, just above her hip. That kind of touch wasn't uncommon to the 25 year old, she had been around so many people in this business that even normal friendships had a bit of intimacy to them.

"Sorry… they're just driving me crazy." Amanda says, unstrapping the gloves on her hands and slipping them off before her left hand reached to her achy right shoulder and she rubbed it.

It had been earlier in the week where what they thought was a broken collarbone thanks to a mistimed kick into the barricade by Dash Wilder turned out to be the damaged nerves from Amanda's 2007 shoulder injury.

Dash had repeatedly apologized but Amanda hadn't spoken to him much since.

2007 was also around the time things fell apart… and not too long after was when she met a young fan…

 _ **10/7/07, WWE No Mercy pay per view…**_

" _Hey." Randy says after cautiously approaching his now ex girlfriend._

" _What now?" Amanda replied, Randy knowing that she was angry about her brother getting injured and having to be stripped of the championship… the same one that Randy had been handed and lost within 10 minutes after Hunter had beat him._

" _Just wanted to see how you were doing." Randy says, also knowing that at the last No Mercy pay per view was when Chris Benoit returned and Amanda was so much happier then._

" _John could be out for a year… you were given his title and then lost it to Vince's son in law. I don't know whether to laugh or slap you because that was a fucking disgrace out there! You proved nothing except that you can't be a champ without it handed to you, at least John earned his championship match!" Amanda says, Randy turning angry and snatched his ex's right arm into his left hand._

" _Is everything okay back here?" Both heard, looked and saw a man dressed in a suit. "I'm Nathan Dawkins, head of the DPA… brought some of the kids here to see the show." Nathan says._

" _Yeah, everything's okay… just a disagreement." Amanda says, her right arm out of Randy's vice like grip and her readjusting her low cut cropped red leopard print ring top which was in a crisscrossed halter style._

" _Yeah. On the road most of the year, we all drive each other crazy at times." Randy says before they saw a small group of kids near Nathan._

 _Jodie and Amanda smiled at each other for a few seconds, Amanda extending her hand and Jodie shaking it._

" _Nice to meet you." Amanda says._

" _You too." Jodie says._

 _Amanda headed out to the ring for her match… when she returned victorious and with the Women's Championship on her shoulder, Jodie approached her again._

" _Hey. Great victory out there." Jodie says._

" _Thanks… it just feels weird though. First time I win a championship match, I'd always thought that my best friend would've been here… I can't even hug Chris anymore, he's gone." Amanda says, trying not to cry… and then shivering slightly as the air around her and Jodie turned cold. "Damn A/C… it's not even needed, it's October… what's wrong?" She mutters, asking the last part when she saw the look on Jodie's face._

" _He's okay… your friend." Jodie says._

" _Yeah… I just miss him so much. He started helping me learn how to wrestle three years ago but I had known him for six years along with his wife and son." Amanda says, Jodie seeing a message on a nearby mirror that said 'Daniel'._

" _Daniel's happy now… he's watching you, he always will be." Jodie says._

" _I miss that little boy… he was like a baby brother to me." Amanda says, unable to control her tears and Jodie pulled her into a hug._

 **Present time…**

"It still hurts sometimes…" Amanda says quietly, brushing her tears away as Finn rested his hand on her back.

"And you never… found out who she was, how she knew that?" Finn asks.

"I just… thought she had watched the news that day in the summer… like everyone else had found out." Amanda says, absentmindedly readjusting her tank top… and then like it had that October evening, the air turned cold, which aggravated Seth as he and the others hadn't stopped arguing long enough to think it was anything other that Amanda playing a prank.

"Not funny, Mandy!" Seth says, Amanda flipping him off and Dean restraining Seth.

"Leave her alone, Seth!" Dean says.

"She just flipped me off!" Seth says angrily, Roman looking at the mirror.

"Roman, you okay?" Dean asks, Roman pointing to the mirror and all three seeing the message.

' _With you three arguing so much, no wonder she sought shelter with him!'_

"Okay, who wrote that?!" Seth demands.

"Probably someone who's going out of their mind, relax." Roman says, Seth's eyes narrowing at Finn and Amanda, who were heading outside into the cool spring air.

"Okay… either she's here again or I'm losing it." Amanda says as Finn grabbed his leather jacket from his car and put it on Amanda's shaking body, Amanda putting her arms in the sleeves… before both saw Jodie walk over to them. "Hey… you've changed." She says, noticing the differences between the Jodie she met nine years ago and the one stood before them.

"Yeah… just grew up really. Things happened." Jodie says.

"They do." Amanda says, Jodie noticing that Amanda had changed too as Amanda's hair was no longer a light brown and a burnt sienna colored nail polish replaced the black she had worn back then… but Amanda looked like she had hardly aged in those nine years and Jodie knew it was the trauma of the double murder-suicide that had caused that.

"Hey!" Seth says loudly, interrupting them.

"What now?!" Amanda snapped at Seth as he charged over to them.

"That message on the mirror, not funny!" Seth says.

"That wasn't her, Seth. We've been by each other's side since we got here today." Finn says, standing in front of Amanda to protect her.

"Stay outta this! Why are you acting like I'm gonna hit her?!" Seth says angrily before noticing Jodie.

"You know, I wonder if you have trouble separating yourself from your on screen character at times." Jodie says, startling Seth.

"Sometimes… look, there was some writing in the mirror in there." Seth says.

"What did it say?" Jodie asks, turning alarmed.

"It said _'With you three arguing so much, no wonder she sought shelter with him.'..._ why do you ask?" Seth says.

"Know somewhere we can talk it over?" Jodie asks.


	2. Chapter 2: The Way Things Change

Nearly a half hour later, they had ended up at Finn's apartment and all had listened as Jodie explained everything… Amanda had turned pale and Jodie noticed her digging her nails into the palm of her left hand which had the knife scar on it.

"Bit too much to take in?" Jodie asks, Amanda nodding as Finn lightly rubbed his left hand up and down her right leg.

"Had Aiden lived… what would he be like today?" Amanda manages to ask.

"I suppose a lot like he already is… protective, a bit grumpy but… the one who'd risk his safety before anyone else even had to think about it. A guardian… as he is now." Jodie says.

Amanda nodded… and jumped as her phone chimed, seeing a text from Nikki.

' _Head outside.'_

"I'll be right back… a lot of us are planning a night out." Amanda says, walking outside and to Nikki, who had a few shopping bags in her arms. "Nikki, do I even want to know what you went and bought now?" She asks with a slight laugh… but Nikki could tell something was off and set the bags in the car.

"What's wrong, kiddo?" Nikki asks.

"There's someone in there who can explain it better than I can." Amanda says, Nikki nodding before opening one of the bags… and Amanda noticing a reddish purple low cut velvet mini dress and red stiletto heels and putting it together from the size tags that fit her better than Nikki. "Nicole Bella, have you absolutely lost it?" She asks, her face turning a light shade of red as for the past month, Nikki had been trying to set Amanda and Finn up as a couple.

"Relax. Come on, you know you like him." Nikki says, Amanda smiling slightly.

The two took the things into the house and Nikki saw Jodie.

"Hi there…" Nikki says, nudging Amanda to head upstairs and try on the outfit and Amanda heading upstairs.

"Hey. You a friend of theirs?" Jodie says, Nikki nodding.

Upstairs, Amanda was out of her workout outfit and put her hair in a messy bun. When she was cleaned off and had shaven up, she slowly got redressed, looked in the mirror… and smiled.

To her surprise, the dress fit her tiny frame perfectly even if it was a little more low cut than she first thought. Amanda freshened up her makeup and applied a matte purple lipstick before seeing another message in the mirror after putting her curls in a high ponytail.

' _Never be afraid to take chances.'_

"Thanks… I just… I haven't really been with anyone in a long time." Amanda says, her last relationship with Cody Rhodes having ended a few years ago. "Aiden… there's a lot about me that I try to keep hidden." She says.

' _Nothing is hidden from me. I see every thought in your head, even those you don't acknowledge yourself… like how badly you really want to do this.'_

"I really do… I just hope there's not any more tension between Seth and I after this. I love him to death but he still sees me at that young kid… the little sister he never had growing up." Amanda says, sitting down and putting the red open toed heels on.

She stood up, the heels raising her height from 5'1" to 5'7"... and a knock at the door made her jump out of her skin.

"Mandy?" Finn says.

"You're already dressed up for tonight? Damn, I've only been up here for a few minutes." Amanda says, glancing back at the mirror.

' _Here's your moment, grab it with both hands.'_ Aiden followed the message with a thumbs up shape before the condensation disappeared.

Amanda unlocked and opened the door as Finn rolled up the sleeves of his black shirt… and stopped, his eyes widening before a smile slowly formed.

"You look amazing…" Finn says, his right hand reaching out and resting on Amanda's left hip as she smiled.

"Hey, what's going on up there?" Seth asks as Jodie helped him fix his tie.

"Would you hold still? You want to look nice for Sasha, don't you?" Jodie asks, lightly swatting Seth's arm.

"I just want to know what's…" Seth starts to say before seeing Amanda and Finn walk downstairs, her right arm linked into his left one.

"Sorry in advance if I step on your toes, I'm not used to wearing heels." Amanda says, Seth giving Nikki a look that implied _'You have a wicked mind.'_.

"Me, wicked? Why would you think that?" Nikki asks in a coy manner.

"You realise John's gonna lose his mind when he sees his baby sister dressed up like this." Seth says.

"No one will regret it… well everyone seems to be doing it, what about you Jodie?" Nikki says, Jodie looking up. "Having a ghost around must make things different, how do you go about getting someone and impressing them?" She asks.

"...you don't." Jodie replies simply after a pause, Nikki unsure whether it was a pause for thought or cringe at old memories.

"You must've had someone sometime." Seth says.

"Yeah, 2 or 3 that ran away or used me for my abilities so I stopped looking." Jodie says, sounding slightly angered and uncomfortable at reliving those memories in that moment.

Amanda reached over, resting her hand on Jodie's shoulder and Jodie calmed down.

"I'm okay… It's something I've lived with since I was born. You go out and enjoy yourselves, there's nothing to ruin it for you." Jodie says.

"Are you sure you don't want to head out with us?" Amanda asks after lowering her left hand, Jodie seeing a faded scar on one of Amanda's knuckles.

"You go. I'll be… somewhere around." Jodie says, the door opening seemingly by itself afterwards.

The group ended up at Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant where Sasha and John, also dressed up, were talking before seeing the others, John nearly choking on his beer when he saw Amanda and Sasha lightly patting him on his back.

"You okay, John?" Sasha asks.

"Yeah… just didn't see this, she rarely dresses up." John says.

"Hey, I've dressed up nicely before." Amanda says, turning slightly offended as they all sat down.

"Just not to this kind of level… hey, didn't you say you had an extra earlier?" John says.

"Yeah… Jodie just wasn't feeling okay." Amanda says.

"Well I hope it's not too bad." John says before whistling out for a waiter.

 **Meanwhile…**

Having seen it on TV so many times, it felt strange to Jodie to see the training centre's ring all darkened and void of life. Then it looked almost like a movie scene as she flicked a switch on the wall and the spotlights aimed into the ring flickered on, Jodie climbing in.

"Okay, Aiden… give me a starter." Jodie says, an outline of a human appearing a few feet from her, all blue except for shining red eyes. It ran at her, Jodie launching herself and flipping off of the figure's shoulders and landing behind it, the figure disappearing into a burst of dust.

' _Bit slower than before…'_

"Hey, you!" Jodie says with a slight laugh. "Now… give me one that will actually do something this time." She says.

The figure reappeared and ran, this time swinging its arm towards Jodie. Her arms raised, clamping together and trapping the figure's wrist before she spun around and gave it a hard yank, the figure disappearing again as a normal human would have just felt their shoulder become completely dislocated.

Jodie went on fighting off figures for a while until Aiden didn't form one following Jodie defeating one, Jodie confused until she saw someone who'd been watching from the doorway.

"Hey, little lady. Almost mistook you for Mandy." Dash says as he climbed into the ring.

"We are similar I guess… different styles though." Jodie says.

"Yeah… I'm Dash." Dash says, extending his hand and Jodie shaking it.

"Jodie… I've been watching for about a few years, I actually met Mandy when she was younger." Jodie says after they let go.

"She started out pretty young… but she's done amazing here in the business. It's been a bit rough at times though." Dash says.

"No one ever really knows what goes on after the cameras stop running." Jodie says.

"It is hard to keep our private lives out of the public eye… knowing Mandy, she's probably hanging out with Finn in some restaurant now." Dash says.

"Yeah, and John, Nikki, Sasha and Seth… going out like that isn't really my thing, came here instead." Jodie says.

"We all need some quiet… life gets crazy at times." Dash says.

"Makes me wonder how she's survived what's happened… it still hurts her, I can see that." Jodie says.

When the two left later, they stopped near a bar across the street from the restaurant, ducking under the awning when it started to rain… and saw Finn and Amanda kissing as they held each other, his left hand resting on her right hip and lightly squeezing it to lift her leg up a bit.

"Nothing like a kiss in the rain." Dash says, him and Jodie smiling slightly as his right hand lightly brushed against her left one. "Oh, sorry." He says.

"It's alright." Jodie says as she leaned against him slightly before they headed into the bar.


	3. Chapter 3: Their Pasts Linger

Jodie and Dash were laughing after a few drinks and talking to each other, enjoying their time together… which had Baron, who was across the bar playing pool with Joe, curious as he watched them.

"Huh… she almost looks like Mandy." Baron says, Joe seeing Jodie.

"Yeah… wait, where is Mandy anyway? I ain't heard from her." Joe says.

"Not sure… I think she and the others went out somewhere." Baron says.

"With Wrestlemania getting closer, I hope they don't get too crazy." Joe says.

"You've known Mandy since she was 15, has she ever truly gotten out of control?" Baron asks.

"She and several others trashed a sushi bar in Huntington Beach once." Joe says, Jodie overhearing that.

"Is that true?" Jodie asks, Dash nodding. "I trashed someone's house and birthday party once, me and Aiden… actually, we burnt it down." She says.

"Damn… do I even want to know what led to that?" Dash says.

"Let's just say… I went to the party, youngest one there. The girl of the day didn't like my present, they all dragged me and locked me in the closet under the stairs… and I was very claustrophobic as a kid." Jodie says.

"Sounds like you had a rough life." Dash says, Jodie nodding.

"Did Mandy… ever tell you what hers was like?" Jodie asks.

"Before I met her? She hadn't opened up much about it at first to anyone… and then not too long after The Shield split up in 2014, she had met Finn and they've been inseparable ever since." Dash says.

"No one was ever really like that to me… well, there was this small group but… I don't know where they are now. We were… homeless together, lived under a highway bridge but..." Jodie says before pulling back her fringe, Dash seeing a scar starting just before the hairline and disappearing into the hair. "Group of vandalizing bastards whacked me into a 6 month coma after burning our 'home' to the ground and I lost track of them all." She finishes.

"Why the fuck would someone do that?!" Dash asks, Joe and Baron hearing him.

"Way before it, I earned some money from the street and one of the others, Stan was his name, went to buy food from the market. He came out with bags in each hand and these vandals came up, one with a camcorder and one with a bat but there were 4 altogether, threatening him and all so I ran over and beat them all to hell… they came for revenge I suppose. Just happened to be on the night that we were taking shelter in an old factory building because one of the others with us, Tuesday, had a baby earlier the same night… and they knew we were in there and set it all alight." Jodie explains, Dash's glass hitting the table a bit harder afterwards as he'd been angered after hearing that, Jodie resting a hand on his arm to calm him down.

"I hate it when people act like that… kick others when they're down. It's so damn wrong." Dash says, carefully hugging Jodie.

"Yeah… they were all okay though. The bastards were caught the next day and Stan, Jimmy, Walter, Tuesday and baby Zoe all got a home somewhere." Jodie says.

"In life, it's helpful to form strong family bonds and friendships… it helps keeps us sane." Dash says after they let go.

"Yeah… sometimes I think I've spent too long without that." Jodie says.

Later when they were back where the apartment was, the two, joined by Joe and Baron, walked in and saw Finn and Amanda kissing… and Baron slammed the door as a jumpscare.

"For fuck's sake, what the hell?!" Amanda asks, Baron gesturing to the lit candles in the darkened room.

"Remember what I said about going too crazy?" Baron asks, Jodie nodding.

"I don't really see the harm though." Jodie says.

"No harm, it's just… been a while for her." Baron says, thinking back.

 _ **11/7/12, NXT Taping…**_

" _Hello?" Baron asks, having heard some sniffling in a darkened hallway. The small figure looked up and through the dark, Baron saw Amanda's hazel eyes and walked to her, sitting down. "What happened, Mandy? You and Cody break up?" He asks._

 _Amanda nodded, brushing her tears away._

" _I'm an idiot… I thought he was a good guy but… Layla was right, Cody's a serial cheater. When I called him out on it, he tried to make it my fault and drag my friendship with Seth into it as well." Amanda says, Baron wrapping his right arm around her in a comforting manner. "Am I too close to him? We've been told that we're more like siblings… I guess I should've learned after what happened with Randy." She says, Baron stopping her there because as far as he knew, Cody wasn't physically abusive._

" _Don't compare the two in that aspect… I used to watch Raw in 2006 and 2007, I saw how Randy was." Baron says, remembering how Amanda would try to pull her arm out of Randy's grip and he would drag her closer to him._

" _John gave him hell after he saw bruises on my arms one night." Amanda says._

" _I expect so. We're like your brothers but he's the real brother." Baron says._

" _Yeah… no matter how old I get, he'll still see that little kid climbing up trees." Amanda says, letting out a slightly crooked smile._

" _Aw, see? There's a smile. Come on, kiddo." Baron says, picking Amanda up into his arms before standing up and taking her down the hallway._

" _I lost track of how long I've been in that hallway…" Amanda says as she leaned against him…_

"Nights like that made me glad that despite us being dysfunctional, we help each other when we really need it." Amanda says.

"Well… I'm glad to be a part of it." Jodie says, low whistling noises being Aiden's way of agreeing.

"Hopefully we don't all go crazy." Amanda says.


	4. Chapter 4: Nightmares And Chaos

' _What the hell?!' Dash thought as before him were Jodie and the group she mentioned… but they seemed to not notice him or the message on the mirror._

' _Before the others… and after countless others. This was Jodie's life, Dash.'_

" _It's… it's the winter of 2001, she must be freezing!" Dash says, noticing the snow around in the untouched areas of the street was as deep as 3 inches._

' _They all were.'_

" _Hey, Jodie, wake up!" A man says whilst shaking Jodie awake from an old mattress on the floor._

" _Stan? Wha…" Jodie starts to ask, stopping as she looked around and saw Tuesday breathing heavily, working out that it was coming to the time for her baby's life to begin._

" _Walter, Jimmy, get her out of here! There's an old building just down the street, the baby will stand a far better chance there!" Stan says, the dark skinned man with a beard and the ill looking, obvious drug addict nodding and helping the groaning, heavily pregnant Tuesday away. "Jodie, we need to get things from that market store… I'll be damned if that child ain't getting it's best shot at life, or the best we can get it!" He says, Jodie following him down to the market store and helping him break into it._

 _The whole time Dash kept nearby to watch, and it wasn't long later that they were in the building and everyone except Jodie had left the room, Jodie being the one to help birth little Zoe._

" _She's… she just knows, was she a nurse or something?" Dash asks._

' _CIA taught her some medical things… yeah, that's a whole other story that caused this.'_

 _Time passed, a baby was born and everyone settled into rooms of the factory… until Jodie was awoken by the coughing caused by inhaling smoke, only to see the walls engulfed in flames._

" _Aw crap… Tuesday?! Stan?!" Jodie says, yelling the last half out as she lept up and made her way through the building. She found Stan, then Walter, Jimmy and finally found Tuesday and Zoe. By that point the building was breaking apart, and a large gap formed between them. "Go, I'll find my way out!" She shouts, Tuesday nodding and quickly getting out with Zoe held close to her, the barely 5 hour old infant screaming her heart out. Though whether it was a result of the fire or some kind of instinct, a 6th sense that knew what was going to happen to Jodie, was something Dash wasn't able to work out._

 _Jodie ran, dodging and jumping over collapsing parts of the building. Outside, Dash saw them. The gang of 4, one with a bat, one with a camcorder and the other 2 with knuckle dusters, threatening the homeless as they were waiting in fear for Jodie… and Jodie came. She came leaping out from the 3rd floor, falling down onto the back of one of the guys' backs and slamming him to the floor, repeatedly punching him afterwards… but that was when the solid wooden bat cracked against the back of her head._

 _Jodie hit the ground and the guy hit her again, this time on her forehead to make sure she was down… but then she wasn't moving. All that was happening to her now was her blood mixing with the snow around her head, the guy she had been attacking managing to get up and the 4 running away with the thought that they had just killed Jodie._

" _Jodie… come on, don't you do this kiddo…" Stan says while trying to revive Jodie, Walter muttering a prayer as sirens approached…_

Dash bolted upright, carefully standing up off of the couch and letting Jodie sleep as he headed upstairs. He turned the bathroom light on after walking in, the sink was on next and he splashed water onto his face… before feeling a small hand on his arm, recognising the sienna nail polish Amanda had been wearing.

"You okay?" Amanda asks, slightly hungover.

"Yeah… just a bad dream." Dash says.

"You can tell me about it." Amanda says… but seeing as how she had started sleeping through the night again after Seth's knee injury, Dash didn't want to scare her.

"That's okay… just something that happened to Jodie." Dash says.

Amanda nodded, her and Dash hugging and her heading back to the room. She climbed back into the bed, brushing a stray hair off her pajama shorts as she pulled the covers over her… all the while thinking Finn was asleep until his arm wrapped around her and she turned to face him, the worried look in her eyes visible.

"He's holding back what exactly happened, just said it was a nightmare about Jodie's life before we all met her." Amanda says.

"From the worried look in your eyes, Dash didn't want to tell you because it was hell…" Finn says, Amanda nodding.

The two fell asleep after a while… when they woke up again, it was because the phone was ringing.

"Hello?" Amanda mumbled sleepily.

"Mandy, wake your ass up and bail us out of jail!" Dean shouts, Amanda and Finn fully awake and Finn taking the phone.

"How the hell did you end up in jail, Ambrose?!" Finn asks.

"Well… we kind of started a small riot in the downtown Orlando area." Dean says.

" _We_? How many of you ended up in jail?" Amanda asks, Finn rubbing his hand up and down her back to try to calm her.

"Most of the main roster and most of NXT except…" Dean says nervously, Amanda remembering that Seth and Sasha didn't return to the apartment and letting a low angry growl out. "No, no, Sasha's here with us!" He says.

"Where! The fuck! Is our! Shield brother?!" Amanda demands, Dean knowing she was pissed and Jodie and Dash carefully opening the door.

"Oh boy, what happened now?" Dash asks.

"Most of our own are in jail… and Seth's gone missing." Finn says.

Amanda hung up on Dean without answering his question if she would bail him out.

When Dean returned to the cell, Roman and the others looked at him.

"She on her way here?!" Roman asks.

"When I told her… she got mad, then got quiet… and then hung up." Dean says, the response being angry yelling from everyone. "Calm down, she won't leave us here!" He says, Sasha slapping him.

"You just had to go and lose sight of Seth, you lunatic! Now Mandy's raging mad!" Sasha shouts, Dean rubbing his face… before Roman saw writing on a nearby window.

' _They'll find him.'_

"Wait… if Aiden's here… he can't go too far away from Jodie, right?" Roman says.

"I think so…" Dean says.

"How the fuck did we lose Seth anyway?!" Alexa asks.

"Well…" Dean starts to explain.


End file.
